Objects Of Our Affection
by Nyhlus
Summary: Noah is a pop culture nerd who thinks he's better and cooler than everyone else. He has always sheltered himself from failure and ridicule. He never takes any chances and is always critical of his friends choices. He might be content with his self imposed bubble, but is it something that he can keep up? And will his friends allow it to keep going?
1. Dodgeball

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They belong to their rightful owners.

Warning: The following chapter contains: violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes, YOU have been WARNED.

Chapter 1

Suburban Toronto.

Wawanakwa High School.

The whistle blows. All the students rush to the centre of the gymnasium from two sides. In the middle is a line of red rubber balls. They each clamour for a projectile then let it loose on the opposing side. Except for Noah, a senior of Indian decent with medium straight dark brown hair. He wears the identical gym uniform everyone has on, blue shirts, black shorts. He just stands perfectly still with his arms crossed. He waits patiently for a ball to be flung in his direction. He turns his body and allows the ball to bounce off his side. "Thank you," he mutters under his breath before walking towards the wooden bleachers on the side of the gym.

"Come on Noah!" Cody called out. The pale skinned boy kept on the tips of his toes waiting for a ball the come his way. "Put a little effort into it." He said giving a glance over as Noah took a seat on the bleachers. A rubber ball smashed into the side of Cody's face almost making him fall. "Well, I tried." He shrugged brushing his hand through his medium light brown hair. He walked over and took a seat next to Noah.

Looking over Tyler saw his two friends sitting on the bleachers. His medium brown hair was supported by a white headband. "We don't suck this badly do we?" Two balls shot right into Tyler. One hitting his left shoulder, the other square into his gut. The force was enough to send him to the ground. Slowly he picked himself up off the ground. "I guess that answers that." He said in defeat.

"Take that nerds!" Geoff, the blond jock yelled out from the other side of the gym.

Noah had already opened up a book by the time Tyler sat down on the bleachers along with Cody. "What are you reading?" Tyler asked.

"One of the Game of Thrones books." Noah answered. "I want to always be ahead of the show in terms of story so I can properly dissect each season on the internets. Since you guys seem to not appreciate my scathing criticism of television."

"Well maybe if you shut up even once about how Shane died early in the comic book for the entirety of the first two Walking Dead seasons, maybe I'd express some sympathy. But seriously, cry me a river." Cody countered back looking out at the rest of their class still playing dodge ball. Multiple other classmates had now made their way to the bleachers after also getting eliminated from the game. "Man, Gwen looks good in just about anything."

Both Noah and Tyler threw their hands up in the air, Noah dropped his book onto the ground. "Jesus!" Noah hollered. "Tyler can you clock this one in?"

Tyler looked down at his wrist watch. "Three minutes and thirty six seconds. I think that may be a new record for shortest time in a gym class before Cody mentioned Gwen. I might need to check the log book, but that's back in my gym locker."

"Come on guys, you make it sound like I'm some creepy stalker. Can you just stop?" Cody said in defence.

"I'll stop when you stop obsessing about Gwen like a," Noah puts his hand to his ear. "Yes, I'm just getting confirmation now from the people of Oxford, Stalker." Noah lowered his hand. "Face it dude, she's never going to date you. Why choose hunchbacked neurotic, deathly shy, loser like you with the depth of a Wayans Brothers film, or Trent, Ponyboy Curtis, Rebel Without A Cause, hunk of pure man meat. The guy Gwen is currently ogling at."

The three of them looked over at Trent. He had jet black hair gelled back. He also had Gwen staring directly at him from behind. Tyler turned back to the others. "I think your being a little harsh Noah." He admitted.

"Cody needs harsh, so he'll shut up about Gwen. Seriously dude. Name one film where the nerd character actually gets with the cool alternative chick?" Noah asked.

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Cody was quick to answer.

Noah nodded his head in agreement. "That's true. But she does hook up with the cool guy first and then has a pregnancy scare with him. So unless you build a time machine and go back to the 1980s or unprotected sex comes back in a big way. I think you're in trouble."

"Really Noah, your talking like your so much better than I am. But what you said about me, what was it, hunchbacked, being shy, applying a depth comparison to an easier target than Hiroshima. All of those things can all be thrown right back at you. Add in self obsessed, and the charisma of Chris Klein." Cody countered.

"And I would never deny it. Seriously though, Chris Klein? Ouch. But you know whats the difference between you and I. Just be quiet and listen." The three of them stopped talking and listened to nothing but the ambient noises of their classmates still playing dodge ball. "Did you hear it? That's the sound of me not bringing up some chick with six inches of white powder makeup on her face repeatedly. In fact there wasn't even a whisper of me mentioning some girl with braces, a blond with a ponytail, or a girl with fiery red hair. It's almost like I just shutted the fuck up." Noah went on.

There was a voice from the middle of the court. "Hey losers!" They all looked over at Alejandro who was holding one of the rubber balls. "I caught a ball, who ever was first can re-enter the game."

They looked over at Noah who instantly shook his head. "I'll go then." Cody declared. He got up from the bleachers and walked back onto the gym floor. He re-entered the game zone. Three rubber balls whizzed through the air and hit Cody from every angle. Cody tried his hardest to cover his head and private parts yelling out, "Come on!" Cody turned around and took his seat back on the bleachers.

"You're little back and forth is entirely why you two don't have girlfriends and I do." Tyler pointed out.

Both Noah and Cody looked at each other before turning to Tyler. "Are you sure?" Asked Noah, "I mean sure she is your girlfriend. But when she believed Peter Sellers was a kind of Canadian department store."

"Or that Veterans day was about honouring animal doctors." Cody added in.

"I don't think that makes you necessarily better than us, in the romantic sense. I mean it's nice that you were about to woo someone. But when that someone is best described as a pile of bricks. I can't help but feel that's not much of an accomplishment." Noah said.

Tyler shook his head. "Man you guys can be mean. Like come on Noah, you've admitted to liking hanging out with her."

"Definitely, each time we hang out I learn what new depths human intelligence can reach, it's fascinating. At times I am surprised she is even able to remember your name. Though I have to warn you, in a pressure situation, I'm afraid she might forget. So just be mindful of that if she's ever calls out someone else's name. You know, if you ever want to risk trusting her with keeping up with birth control." Noah suggested. Tyler looked perplexed at Noah, trying to come up with a reply.

"Damn dude!" Cody felt the need to jump in. "I felt that burn all the way over here! That was getting dunked into a vat of molten steel in the end of Terminator 2 level burning."

Tyler just keep staring at Noah for about ten more seconds before moving his head slightly to be looking at Cody. "I'm trying to think of someway to hurt Noah. I'm having problems, any suggestions? I mean you already used Chris Klein."

"I know, I didn't expect he'd go deeper and not stop. He went like Mark Ruffalo in Eternal Sunshine." Cody conceded.

"Okay that reference didn't even make any sense." Noah felt the need to point out.

"True, but I applaud him for trying to not use Inception, which is basically the Marilyn Monroe of references right now, dumb and superficial." Tyler said in Cody's defence.

Noah just shook his head. "Weren't you just trying to come up with a way to scold me for talking smack about your dumb girlfriend?"

"Right," Tyler remembered. "Hygiene is less than stellar but," He paused to smell his own armpit. "Not much room for non self reflexive criticism. No romantic outlook, no natural skill, keeps any dorky hobby to himself."

"Oh my god. If Harold tries to tell me the story of how his level 11 wizard slayed a dragon in his last DnD game. I swear to God it will be just like a Sophia Coppola film." Cody muttered.

A smile grew on Noah's face. "I'm like Eminem in the end of 8 Mile. Or Bruce Willis in Unbreakable. I live my life on that perfect path of pathetic slacker loser so I have no major accomplishments or distinguishable feats or skills. While at the same time I have social aptitude and like I said before, the ability to shut the fuck up. I keep to social acceptable forms of geekdom like video games and movies as opposed to like roleplaying and furries and shit. And thus, I can destroy someone's faults while being verbally untouchable because my life is so plain there is basically nothing to really dissect."

"And," Cody said with a pause. "You're proud of this?"

Noah took a second to think about it. "You know, was not as flattering when I said it out loud than it was in my head."

"I figured it out!" Tyler called out with glee. He then punched Noah in the arm hard enough that Noah nearly fell out of his seat. "Now don't say you didn't deserve that."

Caressing his now sure to be bruised arm, Noah nodded. "You guys want to go grab some water from a water fountain or something?" The others shrugged. The three stood up from the bleachers. They moved down onto the floor and began to head for the door exiting the gym. Noah felt the need to call out "Go Team!" To the others still playing the game.

"Eat a Dick!" Duncan, the punk with a green mohawk yelled back as Noah and the others exited the gym.

The three began roaming the hallways heading towards the farthest water fountain in the school. Which also happened to be the only one that actually worked. "Simplistic and homophobic, with the wit of a middle schooler. Duncan is really improving his retorts, I wonder if he's even getting private tutoring." Noah rambled on.

_Afterword:_

_This chapter was a lot of fun to write. It was nice to write funny dialogue, and mean dialogue too. I'm still working out the plot to this story. This chapter was really just an introduction to these characters. I sort of took Noah and built on his wit adding a mean side to it, similar to Jack Black's character in High Fidelity or Dr. Cox in Scrubs. Cody just seems to be trying to keep up with Noah. I think Tyler is the most unique, I'll hopefully expand on him in later chapters as this post-jock guy who's come to accept the geek side of him, sort of like Troy from Community._

_Anyway, thanks for reading. Please leave a review telling me what you thought. Also if you want to read something completely different, filled with action, death, and heartbreak, than check out my other completed story Fake Empire._


	2. Hallway

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They belong to their rightful owners.

Warning: The following chapter contains: minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes, YOU have been WARNED.

Chapter 2

Suburban Toronto.

Wawanakwa High School.

The three young men left the gym locker room. Noah wore a burgundy cardigan that was noticeably one size too large over a white dress shirt and fitted blue jeans. Cody wore a light brown pullover sweater with the sleeves rolled up, and dark grey cargo shorts. Tyler wore a bright red track jacket, tight black pants, and the same white headband.

"I'll check you guys later." Tyler told the others. "I told Lindsay I'd meet up with her after class." He gave a quick wave before turning around and hurrying off down the hallway.

Both Noah and Cody allowed Tyler to get a few meters distance between them. "Go get'em Tiger!" Cody called out to Tyler throwing his fist up.

"Be free willy! Be free!" Noah yelled out loud enough that all the others in the hallway could hear him. Tyler just extended his middle finger over his shoulder aimed at his friends without even looking back. He then quickly turned a corner and went out of view.

Cody just chuckled to himself a little. "You know? Some days even I'm surprised that guy puts up with us."

In response Noah just shrugged. "As much as I like the guy. And I think he's a really cool dude. He's never been known for making the smartest decisions. I mean this is the guy who choose to go out with the human tree stump. And plus, who can't remember his whole only wearing full track suits everywhere phase. I think continuing to hang out with us is really not all that surprising."

The two started to walk down the hallway towards their lockers. As they approached, standing off to the side were Trent and Gwen. Trent was leaning on his arm against the wall talking to Gwen. He had on a leather jacket and ripped jeans. Gwen was outfitted in pure black clothing. Cody could barely stand the sight and went straight to his locker. Noah on the other hand walked up to their classmates.

"Yo! Joey Ramone, sorry to hear about your baby." Noah said announcing his presence.

Trent nodded at Noah. "Hey what's up man. Don't worry, I just got off the phone with the president, and he may know where my baby went. Oh yeah, I was wondering if you..." Trent cut himself off to turn and see Cody shuffling through stuff in his locker. "...guys wanted to come over to my place this Friday for a small get together. My parents are out of town so I have the place to myself. We'll just hang out, maybe watch a movie or something."

Cody closed his locker and joined the conversation. "Who's going to be there?"

"Myself, Owen, Gwen said she'd bring Leshawna, and Izzy, already talked to Tyler and Lindsay, they said they were down. Then it'd be you two and Beth, so like ten people." Trent went on naming people.

"Cool, let me check with Theodore Logan over here. We doing anything this Friday?" Noah asked looking at Cody.

"No."

"We'll be there." Noah declared. In response Trent just gave a thumbs up.

Cody nodded his head. "It'll be nice, to hang out with everyone. Especially you Gwen-," Cody started saying before Noah piped up.

"Hey look at the time, we need to go meet up with Beth, who we said we'd meet up with, right now. We'll tell her about your party gathering thingy. Got to go, cherry-o, come on Cody." Noah instructed to Cody. The two turned and began to walk away. Noah waited until they were well out of ear shot before saying anything again. "Never do that again. Remember what I was saying earlier about shutting the fuck up? Just please, at least not when I'm standing next to you."

"I was just being friendly." Cody said trying to defend himself.

It was a defence that Noah was having none of. "Since when did friendly mean creepy? Did Webster fail to send me that edition? Who knows what anything means these days. I hear of a time when Weezer actually meant great original music, and not mediocre crap. Look mate, I know you want to have communication with this girl. But pick a better time, like not when she is standing next to the guy who is clearly on the top of her wanting the bone of list."

"Please continue wise sage. I must learn all the secrets you can tell me." Cody spoke sarcastically.

"Yes, yes. I know how much you need this information. Feel free to take some notes if you need. I'll be happy to repeat anything. Also important, is to know what you're going to say. Not only that, but know how you are going to say it. With your crippling social awkwardness, I'd recommend at least five hours of practice in front of a mirror." Noah kept explaining.

A figure walked right into their paths, bringing the two boys to a stop. "Hey guys," Beth greeted. She had her brown hair tied back in a ponytail. She wore thick rimmed glasses and had braces. "What are you talking about?"

"Noah is trying to give me advice on how to properly pick up a girl. Or talk to anyone ever I guess, of the opposite sex. He was worryingly unspecific. Also something about admiring myself in a mirror or something? I stopped paying attention after he put Gwen, Trent, Trent's penis, and a piece of paper all together in one sentence." Cody informed her.

Beth just shook her head. "Noah, you might want to have some, or any for that matter: experience with a lady before dishing out relationship advice. Not that I'm throwing myself out as a cadaver or anything because one, ew, and two, double ew."

"Hey Churchill didn't need any experience to win World War 2." Noah suggested.

"Yes he did. He was like a POW in the Boer War and in command of the British Navy in World War 1." Cody felt the need to point out.

"Okay fine, don't listen to my advice. Just walk up to Gwen in the hallway and tell her how excited you feel around her and that you like to be near her. I'm sure she'll love it and just jump straight onto your dick." Noah fired back.

Beth turned and looked at Cody. "You didn't actually say that to her did you?" She felt the need to ask.

"No!" Cody called out. "Why would you even think I'd say something like that. Because I wouldn't, I might be a total social wreak, but come on. Unlike what this Frontier Psychiatrist thinks I'm not some super creepazoid. That's like something you'd expect Harold or Ezekiel to say. Not me, I'm normal right?" He looked at his peers who were both giving him blank stares. "You're faces are not filling me with confidence. Confidence would be greatly appreciated right now."

Noah reached over and put his arm around Cody's shoulders. "As much as you are a wreak of a human being when it comes to socially accepted mating practices. No, you are not nearly as bad as Napoleon Dynamite and Homeschooled. Otherwise we'd be way cooler than you, and avoid you like the plague. Besides, you're the Sam to my Bogart."

"Bogart's characters name is Rick in Casablanca, for the record." Beth clarified. "Just so we don't seem super racist by referring to the black actor only by his character's first name, and Bogart as, well, you know. Bogart."

"True, but one of those actors is famous for playing an iconic character in one film. The other is Humphrey mother fucking Bogart. Also you don't even know the actors name Beth, or else you'd have mentioned it." Cody elaborated on. "Wait, there is like a clear power dynamic in that film between the two of them. Why can't I be the french captain?"

"Well," Noah muttered, taking his arm off of Cody's shoulder. "If you want that beautiful friendship. Than you need to earn it. Starting by shutting the fuck up about Gwen."

Beth thought for a second. "Claude Rains!"

"Wait, the black guy or the french guy?" Noah asked.

Beth rolled her eyes, "The french captain, guy, person. He's played by Claude Rains."

"That name sounds oddly familiar for some reason and I can't place it." Noah admitted.

"And Flash Gordon was there, in silver underwear," Cody began to quietly singtalk to Noah. "Claude Rains was the invisible man!" Which he then started to fully sing, "At the late night, double feature, picture show!"

"You missed about half a verse and the entire chorus there." Noah informed Cody.

"It was the condensed version." Cody admitted. "I didn't want to upset the balance of a crowded high school corridor by breaking out into full song and dance. I know that's sort of the Indian way of communicating, or at least as Bollywood has shown me. Would you like me to break out an entire rendition of Timewarp to make up for it?" Cody slowly placed his hands firmly on his hips. He looked over at Beth who also placed her hands on her hips with excitement.

Noah just shook his head. "Oh god no."

"Come on Noah!" Cody teased him. "It's just a jump to the -,"

"Walking away now!" Noah interrupted him, turning his back and starting to walk down the hallway.

Both Cody and Beth looked at each other with big smiles on their faces. They darted forward to catch up with Noah. "Do you have some kind of authoritarian rule on what people are allowed to be considered fun?" Cody asked Noah once they had caught up to him.

"Yes, I am the almighty god of my own solipsistic universe that you all inhabit but are purely figments of my own creation with no self control or determination." Noah rambled on.

"Dooley Wilson! The actor who plays Sam!" Beth nearly yelled out in satisfaction having finally remembered the name she was searching for. She raised her hand up and proceeded to give herself a highfive.

_Afterword:_

_This chapter was pretty short. The next chapter is already longer than this one, with still a large amount to be written. There is not all that much to say about it. Again I am really trying to flesh out these characters. The next chapter will be more focused on characters as well. After that hopefully we'll actually start to see some conflicts begin to arise. I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to review my last chapter, it's the only way to really know what people think of my dumb little story, so please keep the reviews coming._

_To: mighty penguin, I do really like the idea of Bridgette and Noah creating a friendship. Bridgette is always a character I wish to really get a chance to experiment with. However with this story I have already established quite a large cast. Add in all the characters I have started to write in the next chapter (basically everyone Trent mentions in this chapter) and there just really isn't any room for it here in this story unfortunately. I hope you keep reading this story and the best of luck._


	3. Trent's Party

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They belong to their rightful owners.

Warning: The following chapter contains: minor coarse language, minor suggestive adult themes, minor violence, minor drug and alcohol use. YOU have been WARNED.

Chapter 3

Suburban Toronto.

Noah walked down a major suburban street with cars wising by, the sun was just starting to set. Along with him was Tyler and Lindsay. "Look, why can't you just accept that The Fellowship of the Ring, was without a doubt the best film of the trilogy?" Noah kept pestering Tyler.

"Because I liked Return of the King more? Why can't you just agree that we disagree on this matter. Which ever film is better is purely subjective taste anyway." Tyler tried to reason.

Noah just shook his head. "This is not about your subjective taste. This is not a case where the differences come down to pure personal subjective difference, like which Batman movie sucks the least. If anyone were to say that London Calling was not The Clash's best album. They are just objectively wrong. The Fellowship of the Ring is just so much the better film."

"If you want to talk in these absolute terms, fine, Return of the King still wins. First off, it won the Oscars, like all of them. It has the higher rotten tomatoes rating, and is higher on IMDB's top 250. Clearly it is objectively the better film than." Tyler explained.

The little group turned a corner onto a side street. "Bringing up the Oscars first just completely destroys your argument for any kind of objective worth. And IMDB as a website has one fundamental flaw when allowing people to vote for the best films of all time. The flaw is of course that fact that people are stupid." Noah countered. "No offence." Noah said to Lindsay.

"None... Taken?" Lindsay replied confused. "Did I miss something? You guys were just talking about movies right?" She asked.

"I don't even know." Tyler replied. "Doesn't matter though, we're here." The three came to a stop outside a large white house. It was a two stories high detached home with a large lawn in front of it.

"Wait, how late are we?" Noah asked. He then looked down at his watch. "Just under an hour." He said answering his own question. "Hm, we're earlier than I expected. You think we should wait outside for another few minutes?" In response Tyler just rolled his eyes and started towards the front door with Lindsay. Noah stood there for a second before following quickly behind.

They walked up to the front entrance. Tyler reached up and knocked on the door. There was the faint sound of someone shuffling towards the door from the other side. The door swung open to reveal Trent. "Hey guys, come on in."

Noah nodded, "Thanks, Grease Lightning." He walked past Trent and into the front hallway. The house was a rather large one. Directly to Noah's right was a large formal living room and dining area. Directly in front of Noah past the hallway was the open kitchen. Then next to the kitchen was a back room, with a television and three sunken couches. The back room led out onto a rather large deck outside through a set of glass doors. He walked down the hallway to the back room. There were Cody and Beth sitting on one couch, Gwen and Leshawna were sitting on another. They all looked up to watch the new guests enter the room.

"Hey Stringbean!" Leshawna greeted. "Boy, we haven't hung out together in a while."

Noah walked over and took a seat on the couch with Cody and Beth. Tyler and Lindsay sat down on the empty couch. "I know. But hey, it makes sense. Our school is John Hughes films' level white, so we minorities need to spread out in order to help them deal with their white guilt. Which doesn't leave much opportunities to interact."

"You make it sound like that's the only reason we have you around, for diversity purposes, which is totally not true." Beth stressed.

"Wait?" Gwen asked confused. "You mean that's not why you keep that insufferable asshole around?"

The others laughed at Gwen's joke. "Speak for yourself, Wednesday Addams." Noah spoke back. "No

high school group is complete without its freak. Allows us to feel better about ourselves for not having nearly as long or pointless morning prep."

"Are you sure?" Gwen wanted to clarify. "Because I'm not denying how long it takes me to get ready in the morning. But I'm sure you must have an equally long routine, if not longer. I mean it must take quite a while to read all of the Pitchfork website to know what your opinions are that day."

"I'll have you know I only read the best new music reviews and simply look at the ratings of the others and infer the rest, to save time of course." Noah defended himself jokingly.

There was a knock at the front door. "That should be Owen and Izzy." Trent said to the others. He moved over to the front entrance way. Everyone else just sat there and waited. There was the sound of bodies entering into the house and Trent closing the door behind them.

Owen walked into the back room with Izzy and Trent close behind him. He carried about two large cases of beer. "Hey everyone! It's me, Owen!" Owen yelled out, nobody said anything. "Hey everyone! It's the beer!" Owen yelled out trying again, everyone cheered and clapped. Owen was a rather large fellow, he wore a plain white t-shirt and dark green cargo shorts. Izzy wore a tight green sundress that came to well above her knees. She was also barefoot after presumably taking off a pair of sandals. Owen dropped the cases onto the floor. He opened them up and began to pass beer around to everyone. "Hey little brown buddy." He said to Noah when he passed Noah a bottle.

"Hey big gay buddy." Noah replied.

"Now," Owen spoke to the group after everyone received a drink. "It's time to get this started! I will be your guide to good times tonight, as your host Trent is not the most exciting of hosts." Trent just shrugged, he already had a cigarette dangling from his mouth about to walk out to the back porch. "Let's have some fun!"

Gwen got up from her seat and followed closely behind Trent as they walked through the back glass door and out onto the back porch. Owen moved over to Trent's entertainment system and started to fiddle with it to get some music going. Izzy walked over and sat down where Gwen had been sitting. "So are we actually going do anything? Or just sit around all night?" Izzy asked.

"Well I brought a movie we could watch." Cody said.

"Which one?" Tyler asked.

Cody pulled out a CD case will a burnt DVD inside from his sweater pocket. "Fantasy Mission Force. An 1983 Jackie Chan Hong Kong film that apparently he did as a favour. Set during World War 2 a ragtag group fights through Power Ranger Amazons, a haunted house, Japanese Nazis in muscle cars, all on a rescue mission of Abraham Lincoln."

"That sounds absolutely awful." Leshawna stated. "We should totally watch it."

"But first! Let's dance!" Owen exclaimed as he pressed a button and music started the blare from the speaker system in the room.

Noah looked down at his beer. "Uh Owen, I don't think you understand how alcohol works. We need at least a few of these before we start making fools of ourselves."

"I brought some cans so we can shotgun them!" Izzy called out standing up. She walked over and grabbed a large number of full beer cans. "If we want to get intoxicated quicker, much quicker!"

"What a terrible idea. Let's do it!" Tyler burst out raising both arms high. "To the porch!" Everyone got up and headed out onto the porch. Trent and Gwen were a little surprised by their extra company but joined in as well. Izzy was the last to walk out with the actual beers. She peered down at the couches where Noah sat alone, fully lounging out with his arms spread wide and legs crossed.

"Not coming?" She asked.

"Not my style. I like to drink slow. Plus God knows one of us has to be responsible around here."

"How noble of you." Izzy said sarcastically, she walked over and patted Noah on the head before turning and walking out onto the porch. Noah could not help but smirk, then took a large gulp of his beer. He watched from the comfort of the couch through the glass door out onto deck. He watched Izzy explain to the others how to properly shotgun a can of beer. First she'd stab her beer with a key, slice an opening into the side of the beer towards the bottom. Then she'd open the beer from the top and chug all the beer as it can spitting out of the hole she made. It seemed so simple for Izzy to do it, but most everyone else probably spilt more beer than drank it. They all looked like fools to Noah spilling beer all over themselves, but in their defence they looked like they were having a pretty good time.

A couple of hours later, once the final lines of the movie were spoken: _"Don't know any generals. To me you look like clowns!" says Jackie Chan. _LeShawna, Gwen and Trent were sitting together on one couch, Tyler was lying down with his head nestled on Lindsay's lap on another couch. Owen, Beth, and Noah were sitting on the third. Izzy and Cody were sitting in the small space in between couches.

"That movie put Troll 2 to shame in awfulness. We should watch it again!" Tyler commented.

"Who stars in Troll 2 again?" Noah asked, then pointed at Beth right next to him.

"George Hardy. Who's actually a dentist in real life." Beth answered immediately.

"That movie wasn't meant to be taken seriously right?" Lindsay asked the others.

"I hope so girl, I sure hope so." Leshawna answered. "Oh god, that reminds me. Hey Noah, your friends with Courtney right?"

Noah teetered his hand back and forth. "I'd say good acquaintances, I mean I've known her longer than anyone else in this school. But besides greeting each other at our lockers, I can probably count all the conversations we've had in high school on one hand."

"Have you heard the news?" Leshawna asked, to which Noah just shrugged. "Well then, prepare to be amazed because she just started dating." She paused a second for dramatic effect. "Duncan." Leshawna revealed with a smile.

Noah had to cover his mouth to try and prevent spitting out the beer in it. "Are you fucking kidding me?" To which Leshawna shook her head. "My God, I thought she was smarter than that. Do you see it?" Noah began to trace his hand through the air. "That's the sight of the last of my respect for her slowly disappearing into the wind."

"Hey come on." Beth said. "Deep down Duncan might actually be... a... decent... gu-" Beth trailed off before she stopped herself. "Never mind, I was going to say something really dumb."

Owen saw that his beer was finished. "Anyone else want a beer." A couple of people motioned some kind of semblance of a yes. Owen headed to the fridge. Trent reached into his front leather jacket pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. Then got up from the couch and walked to the back porch, again Gwen stood up and followed him.

The rest of them just sat there in silence, assessing their current forms of intoxication when Tyler asked, "Anyone want to smoke this joint I got off my bro?" He pulled out a joint from his pocket. Leshawna, Izzy, and Noah raised their hands. They each started to get up, Lindsay gave a disapproving look at Tyler, which he seemed to acknowledge but mostly ignore. He patted down his pockets. "Shit, I forgot to grab a lighter. Anyone got one?"

"I got one." Cody said reaching into his pocket and grabbing one.

"Why do you have a lighter Cody, you don't smoke?" Leshawna asked.

"No, but Gwen does." Noah answered for Cody, whom he gave a disappointed look. Noah grabbed the lighter out of Cody's hand and then tossed it to Tyler.

The four of them made their way out the front door. "Glad someone was carrying." Leshawna mentioned. "Seems like every house party I go to, someone always asks 'hey blackie where da weed at?' racist dumbasses." They came to a stop right at the back railing of the porch right where Gwen and Trent were standing. Izzy jumped up to sit on the railing.

"Hope we're not interrupting anything. Again." Izzy asked smiling to Gwen and Trent. In response those two just shrugged nonchalantly. Tyler lit the joint with Cody's lighter and took two puffs before passing it on. "Hey Tyler, might not be any of my business. But Lindsay didn't look to pleased with you coming out here." Izzy enquired.

Tyler just scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah I dunno, she's just not crazy about me smoking weed. I don't think it's that bad. My brothers a total pothead and I think she's just afraid I'll turn into him. But like I rarely smoke."

The joint eventually came around the small circle to Noah. "It's no more bad for you than beer." Noah chimed in.

"Exactly." Tyler agreed. Noah took a couple of puffs then began to cough heavily. The others laughed at his expense.

"Dude, lift your arms up over your head and it'll stop the coughing." Trent advised. Noah was reluctant but raised his arms up anyway and his coughing died down. The others kept laughing though.

Gwen moved over and jumped up to sit on the railing next to Izzy. She was handed the joint by Noah and took a couple puffs, then past it on. "Trent, you should play your guitar. I really want to hear you play."

"Yeah sure, when we head inside I'll go grab it." Trent replied. "I don't really know what to play."

"Just whatever you do, do not play Wonderwall." Noah felt the need to stress. "Otherwise I'll have to get all Liam Gallagher on you."

Izzy started to laugh heavily, to which everyone just sort of turned and stared at her. It took a few seconds before she regained her composure and noticed all the eyes on her. "What? I actually understood that reference. Noah can be kind of funny sometimes."

"That's the nicest thing someone has ever said to me." Noah said with a smile. "Much better than our own NCIS forensic specialist over here who called me what an 'insufferable asshole'? Which also happens to be the second nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." Izzy reached up her foot and was able to give Noah a light push with it on his the shoulder from her sitting position. Noah being very weak meant the push forced him to take a step back to regain his balance. "Hey that's no way to accept a compliment."

Izzy crossed her arms and shook her head. "I'd hardly call that a compliment. Plus you insulted one of my best buds." Izzy extended her arms and gave Gwen who was sitting next to her a quick hug.

"I dunno," said Trent. "I don't really think that was an insult. I mean I think the NCIS forensic chick is like really cool and totally hot." The biggest smile grew on Gwen's face.

Tyler flicked the end of the joint out onto the lawn. "Alright I'm heading back inside." He started to head back inside. Noah and Leshawna followed closely behind. As she walked by Leshawna grabbed the front of Izzy's dress pulling her off the railing and making her exit with the others. They walked back inside, leaving Trent and Gwen alone again outside.

The music had been turned back on in the backroom. Lindsay, Beth, and Owen were all sitting together on one couch laughing with each other. Cody was sitting alone on the other couch across, he was silent but seemed to be content. "Tyler!" Lindsay hollered as he entered the room. Lindsay stood up and remained silent until Tyler walked right up to her. "I want to dance!"

"Um. Okay." Tyler agreed. Lindsay placed her arms on top of Tyler's shoulders and began to move her body. Tyler tried his best to keep up. Noah sat down on the couch next to Cody. Leshawna and Izzy sat down on the empty couch. They remained silent for a second as they observed the couple's dancing. Lindsay seemed quite graceful actually, her body flowed in full motion. Tyler on the other hand looked blocky and awkward, the exact opposite of graceful, he looked like he was trying harder not to trip and fall than follow the music.

Gwen made her way into the back room from outside with Trent close behind her. He did not stay though and headed up a set of stairs in the hallway. Gwen walked over and took a seat on the couch with Leshawna and Izzy. It did not take long for Trent to reemerge with an acoustic guitar. "Hey Owen, can you kill the music?" Trent asked.

"Sure." Owen got up and turned off the stereo. This prompted Tyler and Lindsay to stop dancing and take a seat on the couch with Beth. Owen sat back down with Noah and Cody. "Are you going to play anything specific?" Owen questioned.

Trent gave his guitar a look over. "Not really." He grabbed a stool from the kitchen and sat down outside of the half circle of couches. "All I know is that I can't play any Oasis apparently." He began to pluck away at the guitar.

"I never said you can't play the full Oasis discography." Noah tried to clarify. "Just don't play that douchebag anthem. But since Oasis is basically just a Beatles cover band, you might as well put your efforts into more diverse bands."

"Wait, Oasis is just a Beatles cover band?" Lindsay asked confused.

Cody just shook his head. "No, he's just making a point that Oasis tried really hard to sound a lot like the Beatles."

"I don't think it's that big of a deal." Beth said. "I mean sure they tried hard to emulate their idols. We do that too. There's always someone we're trying to endlessly be, some more subtly than others. I mean Trent is trying really hard to be James Dean."

"Really hard." Leshawna agreed, reaffirming Beth's point. Trent looked up from his guitar taking a defensive posture. but eventually after not coming up with a reasonable retort just went back to plucking away at his guitar.

"We all do it. I'm guilty of it too." Beth continued. "I'm always trying to be Jane Fonda."

Cody nodded. "Fred Astaire."

It took a second for Gwen to think before answering, "Siouxsie Sioux."

"Bruce Lee." Tyler was quick to say.

"Megatron." Noah said with confidence. Beth grabbed a couch pillow next to her and tossed it at him. Noah, not having quick reflex skills was unable to block it and got a face full of pillow. "What? Is this like physically attack Noah week or something?"

Izzy gave him a glance. "Hey, I barely touched you, it's not my fault you're super weak."

"In Noah's defence," Tyler said. "I did totally punch him full on earlier this week." Everyone except for Noah and Cody who had been there just sort of stared at Tyler for a second. "Hey, it was either punch him or let him win. And I hate to see that smug face of his when he wins an argument." The others sort of just shrugged, feeling that it was adequate enough of an excuse.

_Afterword:_

_I guess this was a more mature chapter, getting to see these characters outside of the school setting. I tried to come up with an ending to the chapter but figured I'd just end it where I stopped. It's longer than the others so I hope you all appreciate that. Anyway thanks for reading, please leave a review and tell me what you think._


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